Last week, the San Diego County Taxpayers Association (SDCTA) presented a citywide map of all nine proposed city council districts, including a version of District 3 that “maintains its extremely strong LGBT community of interest.”
Lani Lutar, President and CEO of SDCTA, says the map keeps communities and neighborhoods together while promoting responsive government.
“To date there has been plenty of partisan bickering and seemingly little progress in coming closer to consensus,” Lutar said. “We felt it was important to put forward a non-partisan map that puts neighborhoods first, and we look forward to working with other groups to accomplish this goal.”
SDCTA worked with Paul Mitchell, a Democratic political consultant with Redistricting Partners, to create its map. SDCTA and Mitchell’s proposal would shift the District 3 boundaries to the west, eliminating some communities like City Heights, Azalea Park, Talmadge and Kensington from the east, and adding areas such as Mission Hills and Bankers Hill to the west. It also adds a portion of Mission Valley to the north, and parts of downtown, East Village, Sherman Heights and Grant Hill to the south.
The SDCTA proposed LGBT- friendly district contains several census block groups that are in the 95-99 percentile of LGBT communities of interest based on the database that Redistricting Partners created for Equality California. That database considers voting characteristics toward Propositions 8 and 22, donations against Propositions 8 and 22, same-sex households and membership in five of the country’s largest LGBT organizations.
Mitchell said during his presentation that San Diego’s 3rd District is a model for the rest of the state.
“I am doing consulting for Equality California on developing a mapping tool for LGBT communities around the state,” he said during the meeting. “This district is a model for that. I have presented to groups nationally in the LGBT community about redistricting and I have never done a presentation without bringing up the 3rd District in San Diego.”
